State-owned BSNL on Friday complained against the telecom regulator Trai’s decision to cut Access Defict Charges. BSNL said in a statement on Friday that its rural projects may suffer because of revenue losses after the ADC cut.BSNL says it will lose Rs 1,254 crore every year under the new ADC regime — savings that the private operators have promised to pass on entirely to customers.In addition, BSNL has complained that the private sector has shed all responsibility to provide rural telephony. ‘‘Rural networks not only require additional capital investment by BSNL, but also affect its revenues, because BSNL has to provide rural telephones at the tariff of Rs 50 per month, against the average cost based rental of Rs 361 per month,’’ it said.BSNL is also irked over the free calls and lower call charges it offers to rural customers. ‘‘As per BSNL’s network cost, ADC should be of about Rs 11,200 crore a year at the present number of lines it maintains. This will increase with addition of rural telephones,” it has said.‘‘The new ADC regime will not only affect our development activities but will also adversely impact the roll out of our services in rural areas,’’ the statement says. BSNL claims expenditure of around Rs 40,000 crore since 2001 in its rural telephony networks.
